What does me and my friend need to know about Sacae?

[Nozomi Kasaki]

I know this may sound stupid, but my friend is having a roleplay in a Discord server where nations from various worlds with different tech level ranging from ancient to 21st century tech are suddenly being isekai'd to a fantasy world, and for some reason my friend decided to roleplay as Sacae from FE6/FE7. I just don't really get it since Sacae isn't exactly what I would consider as a nation in a sense that it doesn't have a central government governing that land. Perhaps it is a confederation of nomadic tribes?

In any case, my friend said that the Mods in that server seemed to approve Sacae into the rp, so I suppose it doesn't really matter whether Sacae could be considered as a nation or not.

Still, my friend still doesn't know much about Sacae and begins to ask me about it. I don't really know much about Sacae either since I still haven't played FE6/FE7 or looked deeper into the lore of Elibe.

So I decided that I just ask here in the forums about it as opposed to just researching about it on the internet I guess.

So… yeah. Basically, what does me and my dear friend have to know about the lore of Sacae, their culture, politics, and other stuff related to them? And how exactly would these affect the Sacaeans interaction with the fantasy world they isekai'd in? How would they react when their neighboring nations suddenly disappeared?

Also as a bonus question, I'm curious on why some FE fans seem to be scared of Sacae when they are playing FE6? Does anybody care to explain why?

[ping]

I'm not super confident talking about Sacaen culture as a whole, but some points would be...

• Pride/honour. Very high on the list for any Sacaen that I can think of right now - Lyn, Rath (who immediately leaves the Marquis he was serving when said Marquis was showing his racism against Sacaen), Guy (specifically honour; he keeps his word of "owing Matthew his life" even though he hates it), Sue, Shin...
• The Sacaen tribes have their internal strifes and struggles, but they will always unite against an outside aggressor (the "Law of Sacae"). Not sure how you'd translate that into an antropomorphic personification of Sacae as a whole, though.
• Generally speaking, Sacaen seem to not waste words, but this isn't as uniform - I'd say that Lyn, as the most prominent Sacaen character, is a similar level of verbose as her co-lords, for example. But Karla, Sue and Shin in particular tend to get to the point very directly in their dialogues, especially when they're talking to non-Sacaen.

1 hour ago, Nozomi Kasaki said:

Also as a bonus question, I'm curious on why some FE fans seem to be scared of Sacae when they are playing FE6? Does anybody care to explain why?

The TL;DR is that Sacae features a lot of Nomads (= horse archers), an enemy class that's fast and very evasive, in a game where hit rates aren't too great to begin with. Meanwhile, the Pegasus Knights that you face on the alternative Ilia route often carry Steel Lances, which weigh them down tremendously thanks to Peg Knight's low Consititution stat. It basically nullifies the one good stat Peg Knights tend to have, so the only threat they pose comes from their mobility.

I think the difficulty of the Sacae route tends to be overstated, although I do still think it's more difficult than the Ilia route. But Nomads have their own weakness, namely relatively low attack power, so they're countered pretty hard by any high-Def character (and by "high-Def character" I mean Milady the Wyvern Rider carrying a Delphi Shield nullifying effective damage against her). The problem is that if you don't manage to kill them as they approach (and remember, very evasive), it'll often be very difficult to protect your squishies from them on the next enemy phase.

[Original Alear]

I thought it was interesting that in the secret sacae chapter (where you get the bow divine weapon) there are dark sorcerers with status staves. Religiously speaking, Dayan tells Yodel that they believe their ancestors were wolves, and they believe in the elemental affinities. I don't know if the dark shamans are religiously important to the clans, but I think it'd be cool if they were.

It's not clear to me that it's a confederation of tribes. It's true that there are horse/plains/steppes/horsebow peoples who started fragmented and then united to wage war against other nations and such. But in the script of FE6, even after Djute falls and joins Bern, the other tribes seem to try to resist to a certain extent (most notably Dayan's tribe). It also could be that before Bern invaded Sacae, the fragmented tribes sometimes warred against each other in less extreme conflicts. Or maybe they really were united, and primarily fought bandits and and defended from other countries (or invaded in raids themselves sometimes). But the exact nature of the unity of Sacae doesn't seem clear to me from what I looked at.

Also, even though there's a big focus on clan life, Fir says she and her parents lived away from the clans, and didn't really participate in clan life. And it seems like it was that way for Lyn as well, at least after she lost most of her family.

Umm, and Shin says Sue is critical to the revival of their clan, so it seems like leadership tends to be hereditary, at least for the Kutolah.

[Eltosian Kadath]

The Sacae is filled with nomadic clans that range across its plains with only a single city Bulgar, mainly used as a place to trade with the great powers of Etruria and Bern. The people of the Sacae worship Father Sky, and Mother Earth but there is a hint of animism to it as well with the sense that things of nature have spirits that deserve respect, and that you can even hear, if have but the patience and wisdom to listen.

 

3 hours ago, Nozomi Kasaki said:

Also as a bonus question, I'm curious on why some FE fans seem to be scared of Sacae when they are playing FE6? Does anybody care to explain why?

One major reason is that two of the most dangerous enemy types are very common, Nomads, and Swordmasters. A second is that its maps have some very luck based gimmicks, like one where the seize point, that the unpromoted Roy must somehow get to without dying, is surrounded by a wide circle of yurts that reinforcements randomly ambush spawn from after someone enters the circle, or another where there are multiple seize point, and which is the real one you have to seize to win is random.

 

[Shadow Mir]

11 hours ago, Nozomi Kasaki said:

Also as a bonus question, I'm curious on why some FE fans seem to be scared of Sacae when they are playing FE6? Does anybody care to explain why?

Long story short, the Sacae maps as a whole are poorly designed. Two of their maps have fog of war, which is already a generally loathed mechanic, but one of those maps also has long range enemies in locations you cannot do anything about. Particularly notable are two Bolting Sages in the center of the map, which gives them a massive threat range... in a game where low resistance is the norm. Also, one of the most common enemy types in Sacae is nomads - basically archers on a horse. They're very fast and mobile units, and hit rates tend to not be great. And because they use bows, most units cannot counterattack them. Another issue is two maps have luck-based mechanics in them. And the last one has a swordmaster boss. Swordmasters are generally dangerous because of high crit chances, but in this game, they have 30 innate crit before any other modifiers. This means they have a good chance to chunk or even outright kill a unit.. They are ALSO fast and evasive, which means most units are gonna struggle to have good hit on them. This is especially true for the boss, who is on a gate.

[MadBoar]

19 hours ago, gnip said:

 

I think the difficulty of the Sacae route tends to be overstated, although I do still think it's more difficult than the Ilia route. But Nomads have their own weakness, namely relatively low attack power, so they're countered pretty hard by any high-Def character (and by "high-Def character" I mean Milady the Wyvern Rider carrying a Delphi Shield nullifying effective damage against her). The problem is that if you don't manage to kill them as they approach (and remember, very evasive), it'll often be very difficult to protect your squishies from them on the next enemy phase.

I'd actually say Ilia is the tougher route, since you get access to the psychic staff store shop at a chapter later, the terrain is more complex , you have to use the pegasus more than the nomads more to get to Ilia, and you get an extra 15 turns to spare for your ranking in Sacae. 

[ARMADS!!!]

So about Sacae culture, the sacaeans are very prideful and value honor, you can see as they never lie (to the point Lyn even trusts the instructions given by an enemy because he was sacaean), usually don't refuse challenges, and also are open about when someone gets their respect.

 They are very sexist as you can see by both Lyn's and Karla's backstories (the Lorca tribe didn't want to follow Lyn as their ruler, after her father's death, because she was a woman, and Karla wasn't allowed to wield a sword for being a woman and also was told to do what men said), and women aren't usually allowed to fight, when they do it's with a bow (likely because they already use it to hunt I guess). Sacaeans are also very spiritual/religious and worship nature stuff such as the wind, the sky and the earth.

 The tribes might have some differences on their customs among themselves, but i'm not sure if it's ever addressed.

 

 This short essay about sacaean culture and customs (with quotes from supports + examples regarding each sacaean character) will probably be useful to your friend: 

 

 I suggest reading the comments too, some of them expand on the analisis (and there are only 13 comments anyway).

 Also the FE wiki page about Sacae includes bits about their culture, customs and traditions: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Sacae

 

 - If you need to know more than this, look up the supports of every Sacaean or half Sacaean  character (Lyn, Guy, Karla, Karel, Rath, Sue, Shin, Dayan, Fir and Rutger) and you might get some useful info. But beware that Karel and Karla were raised on a place that, despite being in Sacae, had no contact with the other tribes (although I don't remember if it was on a tribe per se that had no contact with other tribes or if it was some sort of isolated house/manor inside a normal tribe and that what had no contact with the tribes was the members of the manor and not the tribe). 

 - The Sacae route from FE6 probably provides useful info as well, look up the chapter scripts on FE6 to see if you find something.

- Also keep in mind that Sacae was heavily inspired in Mongolia (clothes, names, culture) so if your friend is planning on making some OCs in Sacae then tell him to take the names from here, or if he has to make up something then it might be useful to keep this in mind. Although I have no clue as to which era in Mongolia that Sacae takes inspiration from, like if it's just Mongolia in general, or from a specific time or from nowadays... 

 

 You can see even more about sacaean culture in Fire Emblem Heroes, go look up Rath's, Sue's and some Lyn's lines in FEH (Fire Tribe Lyn has some lines about Sacae festival/customs or something as far as I remember and her Brave alt surely must have some too, the others I'm not 100% sure you'll have to look it up, also a bunch of Rath's and Sue's lines are about Sacae and their customs). You can find the lines of every character in feh on the FE wiki. Maybe you'll find more on other sacaean character's lines too (like Karla maybe).

 

 If you have any question, ask away, I'll try to answer it as best as I can. Good luck to you and your frriend

 

 

 

[Nozomi Kasaki]

On 7/13/2023 at 10:05 PM, ARMADS!!! said:

So about Sacae culture, the sacaeans are very prideful and value honor, you can see as they never lie (to the point Lyn even trusts the instructions given by an enemy because he was sacaean), usually don't refuse challenges, and also are open about when someone gets their respect.

 They are very sexist as you can see by both Lyn's and Karla's backstories (the Lorca tribe didn't want to follow Lyn as their ruler, after her father's death, because she was a woman, and Karla wasn't allowed to wield a sword for being a woman and also was told to do what men said), and women aren't usually allowed to fight, when they do it's with a bow (likely because they already use it to hunt I guess). Sacaeans are also very spiritual/religious and worship nature stuff such as the wind, the sky and the earth.

 The tribes might have some differences on their customs among themselves, but i'm not sure if it's ever addressed.

 

 This short essay about sacaean culture and customs (with quotes from supports + examples regarding each sacaean character) will probably be useful to your friend: 

 

 I suggest reading the comments too, some of them expand on the analisis (and there are only 13 comments anyway).

 Also the FE wiki page about Sacae includes bits about their culture, customs and traditions: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Sacae

 

 - If you need to know more than this, look up the supports of every Sacaean or half Sacaean  character (Lyn, Guy, Karla, Karel, Rath, Sue, Shin, Dayan, Fir and Rutger) and you might get some useful info. But beware that Karel and Karla were raised on a place that, despite being in Sacae, had no contact with the other tribes (although I don't remember if it was on a tribe per se that had no contact with other tribes or if it was some sort of isolated house/manor inside a normal tribe and that what had no contact with the tribes was the members of the manor and not the tribe). 

 - The Sacae route from FE6 probably provides useful info as well, look up the chapter scripts on FE6 to see if you find something.

- Also keep in mind that Sacae was heavily inspired in Mongolia (clothes, names, culture) so if your friend is planning on making some OCs in Sacae then tell him to take the names from here, or if he has to make up something then it might be useful to keep this in mind. Although I have no clue as to which era in Mongolia that Sacae takes inspiration from, like if it's just Mongolia in general, or from a specific time or from nowadays... 

 

 You can see even more about sacaean culture in Fire Emblem Heroes, go look up Rath's, Sue's and some Lyn's lines in FEH (Fire Tribe Lyn has some lines about Sacae festival/customs or something as far as I remember and her Brave alt surely must have some too, the others I'm not 100% sure you'll have to look it up, also a bunch of Rath's and Sue's lines are about Sacae and their customs). You can find the lines of every character in feh on the FE wiki. Maybe you'll find more on other sacaean character's lines too (like Karla maybe).

 

 If you have any question, ask away, I'll try to answer it as best as I can. Good luck to you and your frriend

 

 

 

I see... This would be very helpful to my friend's roleplay. Thanks! Honestly can't wait to see how my friend would make Sacae interact with outsiders, especially non-Elibeans with modern tech from another world, and the new world Sacae and its tribes found themselves in with all of these pieces of information you have shared.

(Also my friend is a 'she', but eh that's not really important.)

Edited July 21, 2023 by Nozomi Kasaki